Things to share from my business journey

How Important Is Mindset?

Were you born lucky? Do you believe that you are in control of your own destiny? Do you believe that any skill or talent that you need can be learned, developed and improved? How you answer these questions provides insight into the type of mindset that you have.

Why having a certain mindset is important

Research being conducted in the field of psychology increasingly shows that more than one’s intelligence, educational experience or talent is taken into account; it is one’s mindset that actually determines how much success we experience in school as children and later in life as an adult.

In an article published in Psychology Today as well as The Science of Success, Dr. Heidi Grant Halvorson discusses how children, particularly bright girls, set themselves up for failure when they assume that their abilities are something that they are given at birth, a gift of genetics that is determined by gender, rather than a skill that can be learned and honed.

Having this fixed mindset results in students giving in too early on difficult problems and subjects, and attributing the failure to a “lack of talent”. This fixed mindset then follows us into adulthood and leads us to give up control for our actions and results and blame others, or circumstances, for our performance level.

Halvorson’s comments mirror the results of research conducted in the areas of achievement and success by the psychologist Carol Dweck with the well-respected Stanford University. According to Dweck, individuals with a growth mindset are more likely to persist in their efforts and seek to learn from their mistakes. This persistence leads to eventual mastery of skills which in turn helps us create an environment where our abilities and performance are recognized and rewarded. Through this persistence and mastery, we experience greater success throughout our lives, whether it’s in school or the workplace.

According to Dweck, having a growth mindset doesn’t just increase the level of success we experience in our academics and careers. It also points to how successful we will be in our relationships, both at home and in our communities.

How to change your mindset

It is a bit unnerving to realise that something as simple as having a certain attitude about our abilities can impact how we perceive ourselves and others, as well as influence the actions that we take. Perhaps the best news from this research into mindset is the fact that regardless of what has happened in the past, none of us are confined to keeping the same mindset.

It really is possible to use the power of our minds to change our mindset and change the way that we interpret ourselves, others, events and the world around us. It’s also not that difficult, or time consuming, to begin to understand our current mindset and take steps to change it.